Download Course:當代劇場與電影改編 Number: 9642036 Name:邱蘭芬Tiara

Course:當代劇場與電影改編
Number: 9642036
Name:邱蘭芬 Tiara
Unspoken words-mendacity and truth
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was written by Tennessee Williams, and it was a play that
composed of lies. William’s dry run for the play was a short story named Three
Players of a Summer Game. The play was set in Mississippi, a family gathered
together to celebrate Big Daddy’s 65th birthday. The reality was that all the family
members except Big Daddy and Big Mama knew that Big Daddy was dying of cancer.
The elder son, Gooper and his wife were planning to get Big Daddy’s estate, while the
younger son, Brick, was alcoholic and indifferent to his wife Maggie. The play
concentrated on three characters: Maggie, Brick and Big Daddy. Williams revised the
third act of the play due to Elia Kazan’s misgivings, and in most editions of the play,
Williams printed both his original third act and the revised version. The play was
adapted into film in 1958, but the subject of homosexuality was deleted. In 1955,
when the play first premiered in New York, the subject of homosexuality (between
Brick and his friend Skipper) was thought to be the central issue of this play. However,
the real theme of the play was the general mendacity of this society.
There were numerous instances of mendacity throughout the play: the whole
family lied to Big Daddy about his illness; Gooper and Mae tried to deceive Big
Daddy that they were unselfish but concerned about him; and Maggie lied to the
family that she was pregnant. Besides, Brick’s self-deception, which made him
alcoholic, seemed tp derive from the death of Skipper. He blamed Maggie for
Skipper’s death, but the truth was that Brick refused to admit his responsibility to
Skipper’s death. Big Daddy and Brick were the only two who never lied to each other,
but they also confessed that they never told each other the whole truth. The family
seemed to be happy; however, each member of the family knew something or desired
for something, they just did not have the courage to admit.
Big Daddy was the character who dominated the play and the family. From the
action Brick wiped Maggie’s kiss, he could know that the couple did not have a happy
marriage. Big Daddy also knew that Brick was immature so Brick refused to face the
responsibility of marriage and career; he was depended on Skipper to help him keep
alive in the adolescent world. Brick’s indifference was his weapon to alien whole
world because he did not have the courage to face the reality of life. Maggie was the
opposite from Brick, she faced and embraced life. The title Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was
used to describe Maggie’s different situation, who grew up in a poor family. Poverty
made part of her personality. She understood the torture of having no money, so that’s
why she was like cat on a hot tin roof. She knew how cruel the reality was, so Maggie
had to protect herself through lying. She also knew that Brick did not love her:
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone!”, but she
still determined to support and help Brick to get Big Daddy’s estate. At last, with Big
Daddy’s arrangement, she got what she wanted.
The differences of the two versions of the play was due to Elia Kazan‘s
suggestions, and he was the director of premier play. His misgivings were three in
number: Big Daddy, being a crucial character, should not disappear in the end of the
second act; there should be evidence of Brick’s new page of life after the frank talking
with his father; and Kazan believed that Maggie should be more sympathetic to the
audience. In complying with Kazan’s three points, the play was improved. Big
Daddy’s participation and arrangement in the third act made the whole play reasoning,
and Maggie sympathy as well as Brick’s change gave hope to the play. Maggie’s last
lying about her pregnancy seemed to be conceived. Brick, though still a little
immature, turned more like a man than before. And Maggie was not the one who only
wanted to get the estate. The unborn baby, though we did not know if it was true,
might give the family vigor and make the play more humanized.
The film version was not the same as the play. The controversial subject of
homosexual was deleted. Richard Brook, the director, focused on Brick’s
unwillingness to face his responsibility of marriage and being an adult. And Skipper
was the one who he was depended on to escape from the adolescent world. He was
not really indifferent to Maggie, but refused to grow up. Without the controversial
issue of homosexual might make the film more popular to the mass, for it avoided the
taboo of homosexuality, but also lost the original meaning of the play.
There were still some unresolved questions in this play, but that was needed for
us to think about the issue that the play brought. As Williams himself said, “Some
mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of
mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even on one’s own
character to himself.”
Gene, D. Phillips. The Films of Tennessee Williams. The United States of America.
Associated University Presses, 1980.
Tennessee, Williams. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The United States of America. New
American Library, 1985.
Com. Catherine, M. Arnott. Tennessee Williams on File. Methuen. London and New
York. Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd. 1985.
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_Hot_Tin_Roof_(film)
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_Hot_Tin_Roof